Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Child care the theme for latest City of Prince Rupert consultation


The City of Prince Rupert is looking to hear the opinions of those who are interested in access to affordable and quality Child care in the community, with the City launching a Survey today and looking for both parents and child care providers to provide feedback for it.

 The survey is available through the City’s Rupert Talks online consultation platform, as well as from various community locations, including the Prince Rupert Library, Recreation Complex, City Hall, Friendship Centre, and Northern Savings Credit Union.

Parents completing the survey are eligible to win passes for the Prince Rupert Recreation Complex and a $500 RESP from Northern Savings Credit Union for participating.

The survey will be open for participation until September 30th, 2019.

To launch the city's community engagement process Mayor Lee Brain made note of the importance of child care services for families in the city.

“We know from speaking with residents that child care is something that many families in Prince Rupert struggle with, especially those working shift work. This study will help us to quantify those anecdotal stories, and provide a basis for local child care providers to apply for the new funds available through the Province.”-- Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain

The project comes after the city received $25,000 in grant funding from the Union of British Columbia Municipalities.

The topic was first introduced to Council in December of last year, followed up with some notes on its progress in May.

Information received from child care providers and parents will inform the development of the draft plan, which will be available for public review in February 2020.

You can learn more about the project through the Rupert Talks portal

The Parents survey (available here) features nineteen questions and an opportunity for expanded commentary.

A Sample of one of the questions from the City of Prince Rupert's
Child Care survey launched today


The Care Providers survey (available here) features seventeen questions.

The project also features a Child Participation Activity exercise, described as follows:

The purpose of this exercise is to hear directly from children about what they value in respect their care environment. To participate download the toolkit for your child (or children you care for) to complete.

Note that parent permission forms are included in the kits. Completed kits can be returned to the City of Prince Rupert (Attention: Veronika Stewart) by September 30th, 2019.

To participate download the Child Participation activity in the Resources and Documents section to your right and return it to the front desk at City Hall, or download it directly, here.

The Rupert Talks page notes that at some point in February the public will be invited to a drop in session to allow for further community review and feedback of the drat plan. 

Once completed the City's Child Care Assessment and Action plan will also make for a valuable resource for the City, child care operators, employers and community partners to use to proactively address local child care needs.

In addition, it will be a key document to assist local applications for the recently announced Childcare BC New Spaces Fund, where Prince Rupert is eligible for up to $3 million in space creation funding.

The announcement of the project can be reviewed here.

Those taking part in the process can find updates along the way from the Survey home page.

For more items of note on City Council initiatives see our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.

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